Happiness (Civ5)

Happiness is a measure of people's feelings of contentment within an empire. We could also liken it to the 'approval' rating of the leader (you). It is counteracted by Unhappiness, people's discontent or disapproval of your rule, which naturally increases as the game progresses. The two stats form a balance, which changes constantly, and of which depends the normal functioning of a civilization.

It is worth noting that 'real' problems, like food shortages or slow cultural growth don't bear on the level of contentment of the people - more important factors are instead the overcrowding of cities, or such visibly vicious acts like conquering foreign cities and razing them, which have to be countered by the state with the old principle - 'Keep people entertained and distract them with shiny baubles to make them forget their problems!'.

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There are three levels of Happiness: happy, unhappy, and very unhappy.

An empire with Happiness of zero or greater is considered happy. Happy civilizations grow as normal, and each turn's Happiness value is added to the empire's Golden Age counter. We could say that such empires are well governed internally, although that doesn't necessarily mean that they will be successful, or competitive.

A civilization with Happiness below zero is unhappy. An unhappy empire causes each city's food surplus to be reduced by 75%, drastically reducing population growth. In Brave New World, there are additional effects; see below for more info.

A civilization with Happiness of -10 or lower is very unhappy. A very unhappy empire does not grow at all, suffers a Production penalty, receives a nasty combat penalty (-33%) for all its units, and cannot train settlers.

When Happiness drops to -20, the civilization's cities go into revolt, and rebels start appearing throughout the empire, based on the number of cities. The rebels are similar to Barbarians, but appear in groups. Once a group of rebels spawns, another group will not appear for a while. Again, for the exact effects of Unhappiness in Brave New World, see below.

Social Policies: Almost all Social Policy trees have some way of boosting a civilization's Happiness. Common methods include granting Happiness from certain buildings and reducing the Unhappiness generated by population.

Unhappiness directly subtracts from Happiness, and increases as a civilization grows. There are several sources of Unhappiness.

Number of Cities: Each city in an empire adds +3 Unhappiness.

Population: A living person is an unhappy person. Each of a civilization's citizens automatically generates +1 Unhappiness.

Puppet Cities: Each puppet city in an empire adds the same amount of Unhappiness that a normal city does.

Annexed Cities: Each annexed city in an empire produces roughly twice the amount of Unhappiness of a normal city. The exact amount varies. This penalty can only be removed by constructing a Courthouse in the city.

Razing Captured Cities: Razing a city creates the same amount of Unhappiness as annexing a city. This Unhappiness, however, diminishes during the razing process, and disappears entirely once the city is destroyed.

Population of Annexed or currently razed Cities: Each citizen in an annexed, or currently razed city generates 1.33 Unhappiness, 33% more than a regular citizen.

Public Opinion: Only possible once you have adopted an Ideology. If another civilization with differing Ideology has stronger cultural influence on your empire than yours, your Public Opinion starts generating Unhappiness. After all, the grass is always greener on the 'other' side!

Happiness has been reworked in the Brave New World expansion pack, with the introduction of the new Ideology mechanics, including the Public Opinion. If its level is not 'Content', it now adds directly to Unhappiness, and the exact amount of points added depends either on the number of cities, or the number of population (whichever is greater).

The first thing on Happiness in BNW is the effects of an Unhappy empire have been changed - now each point of Unhappiness below 0 gives a penalty of -2% Production and Gold output (applies directly to the output of each city), as well as -2% Combat Strength for all units. Effect on city growth is the same as before (as if you were adding to your Food Basket only 1/4 of the normal amount you would otherwise add).

At -10 ("Very Unhappy"), population growth stops completely, you can't train Settlers anymore and rebellions erupt at regular intervals in the form of 'Barbarian' units appearing right near a city of yours, using your most up-to-date units and technology. Production, Gold and Combat Strength continue to lower steadily.

Finally, when your empire's Unhappiness reaches -20, given your Public Opinion is low, some of your cities may start to revolt and change their allegiance to other empires following their Preferred Ideology. The effect is as if the other empire suddenly acquired the city in question. Border cities are most likely to defect, and the civilization they go to is the closest one with the Preferred Ideology.

Clearly, this presents a grave danger for your empire, while at the same time the new gradual worsening of the situation feels more natural (as opposed to simply having an 'Unhappy' and 'Very Unhappy' stage).

Keeping your empire happy is difficult, but important. The main thing you need to remember is that your empire gets gradually unhappy, as time goes - whether it is from Population growth, or due to more cities being founded or conquered. To counter this, the first thing you need to do in the first stage of the game, is get access to as many luxury resources as you can get hold onto. Later, you'll have to depend more on Buildings and Social Policies, especially when Ideology kicks in.

Try to keep your empire happy at all times, but don't despair if your empire's Happiness becomes negative for some turns - it's not the end of the world. Try to negotiate some more Luxuries, or build Happiness-boosting buildings, and think of some long-term strategy to boost your Happiness (such as building up to a particular Social policy or building a particular Wonder). Or, try to eliminate any extra Unhappiness, for example the one from Occupied cities.

Also in Brave New World, you will have to deal with Public Opinion where your civ will be influenced by other Civs with higher Tourism rates than your own. If you aren't playing a Culture civ, you might find your Happiness rates suffering because of this.

One solution is to try to improve your Tourism rate slightly to overcome this, but you may also have to adopt some of the Happiness-oriented tenets of your Ideology in order to even out these losses. If it gets absolutely unmanageable, you can adopt the Ideology of the person presently leading in Tourism, but this will cost you all of your Ideological Tenets thus far, and so it is not advisable unless you are desperate.